


Reminiscence

by dango96



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Accidental Time Travel, F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Fluff, Time Travel, brief mention of unrequited edeleth, very brief sylvix mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24420508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dango96/pseuds/dango96
Summary: Byleth and Hubert accidentally travel back in time to a Garreg Mach classroom, 5 years prior.Things get a little crazy.For a (SFW) prompt on3houseskinkmeme.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 8
Kudos: 108
Collections: FE3H Kink Meme





	Reminiscence

**Author's Note:**

> "Byleth and Spouse-of-choice find themselves in the past during the Academy year to the utter bewilderment of the student/church body. Just shenanigans all around, like the students being surprised about who Byleth married or wondering how said spouse managed it or what happens in the future (Dimitri has an eyepatch for example). Plus Byleth having to deal with a confused Rhea who didnt know her mother could time travel and is looking like the confused white lady doing math in her head meme.
> 
> Time-wimey bullshit makes it so no one will remember the future versions anyway so no time paradoxes to speak of."
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

_This is bad,_ Byleth thinks. _This is really, really bad._

Last she knew, she'd been sharing a private moment with her husband in one of Garreg Mach's empty classrooms - they'd returned after the war to reassess the state of the facility, how it might be of use to their newly united Fodlan. And a brief pause in the Black Eagles classroom, to reminisce about their classroom days, had turned into something more.

She remembers sitting on her teacher's desk, Hubert standing in front of her, chuckling something about how he was no longer her dear student. She remembers smiling, the warmth blossoming in her chest. She remembers staring into his eyes, his hand on her wrist, wishing that this one second could stretch on into eternity.

And - yes, she recalls thinking, _if only Sothis were still here. Then it_ could _last for eternity. Just for a minute or two, I could freeze this moment in time._

The familiar pull of Divine Pulse seemed to tug at her brain, the way her stomach leapt like she was in freefall. But that was impossible, of course - she'd lost the Crest Stone bonded to her heart once Rhea had fallen, and all the divine powers that had come with it.

But then everything had gone grey, trickled away like rivers around them. And now, here they are.

Standing in the middle of that same classroom, except with far less dust and rubble. In fact, it looks exactly as it had been five years prior.

Right down to the students in seats and a younger version of herself at the helm of the classroom, all of whom gape in awe and confusion at the pair who had just appeared in the midst of their lesson.

Hubert's eyes look about as panicked as she feels, but he keeps his outward calm. It's one of the things she'd always admired about him - his ability to stay collected in the most difficult situations.

"Byleth," he whispers tersely, "what is this?"

"I don't know," Byleth whispers back, her eyes nervously canvassing the classroom as students start to murmur. "I think I... accidentally traveled us back in time."

Hubert pales slightly at the answer, and casts a glance around the room. "You said your powers were--"

"Gone, yes. I don't know what's going on."

She follows his gaze, and feels her heart swell in her chest at the sight of it. All her students in a room once more, all young and bright-eyed, untouched by the horrors of war. How she wishes she could preserve them like this, so that they'd never have to live their lives knowing what it's like to watch a man die.

"Professor?" A familiar voice finally breaks the silence, and - of course, it's Edelgard getting up from her desk, never one to shy away from tackling a situation head-on. It's surreal to see her back in her school uniform, rather than wearing a heavy horned diadem and her distinctive blood red dress. "What is the meaning of this? Why are there two of you?"

Edelgard crosses the room to approach them. Beside her, Hubert stiffens noticeably, and Byleth has to suppress a giggle at the sight of her husband, tall and imposing in his uniform, struggling to not bow in deference to their small, 17-year-old emperor.

"And Hubert..." Her voice softens, looking up at his face, studying his features. "It really is you, isn't it? But you're older..."

"Yes, Your Ma-" Hubert swallows, schools his face into something more impassive. "-Lady Edelgard."

"We appear to have traveled back in time," Byleth helpfully adds, to a chorus of shocked murmurs. Byleth notices her younger self mouth something like 'what is going on', to which she mouths 'don't worry about it'.

Edelgard's eyes widen with something like delight. "Then - if you're from the future, Hubert, our plans, did they..."

"I wouldn't so easily trust this stranger, Lady Edelgard," Hubert interrupts, but this time, it's not her husband - it's a younger Hubert, hair longer and more unkempt, his arms folded stiffly behind his back. He eyes both of them with contempt as he steps in front of Edelgard, putting a barrier between them. "Time travel? Do you truly expect me to believe that?"

But then her husband leans forward, tips his head to whisper into his younger counterpart's ear for a minute - and whatever it is that was said, it must be convincing enough, for he draws back with a bemused expression and his indignance completely gone.

"I withdraw my previous statement," he grumbles, retaking his previous position behind Edelgard. "Whatever the reason may be for this contradiction, he... indeed appears to be me, or at least knows enough for it not to matter."

Linhardt, surprisingly enough, is the next one to speak up, raising his hand but not waiting to be called on. "If you're from the future, can you tell us what the state of Crest research is? What kind of advancements have been made?"

"Ooh!" Annette perks up from beside him. "Linny's right! Have there been any new discoveries on Reason magic?"

"Um-" Byleth frowns. What is she, a walking magic research journal? Even in her own time, she wouldn't be able to answer that question without looking it up.

"What about sweets?" Mercedes questions hopefully. "Were any new sweets invented?"

Petra lifts her hand next. "I am also wanting to know, was Brigid regaining its independence from Fodlan?"

Raphael, apparently unconcerned with the state of Brigid, gets up so quickly that he knocks over his chair. "Are my muscles bigger in the future? How big?"

"Wait!" Sylvain excitedly jumps up from his seat, jostling a Felix beside him who looks just as confused as he does annoyed. "Does that mean you know who married who? Hey, did Felix ever get married? Did _I_ ever get married?"

"Sylvain, you idiot-"

"Yes," Hubert drawls, some irritation in his voice. He'd never been fond of the Faerghian additions to their army, but had tolerated them for Edelgard's sake. "To each other."

Really, they shouldn't be saying any of this. It could change so much in the future, derail things entirely. But in that moment, seeing Sylvain and Felix both white as a sheet as they turn to look at each other, Byleth can't bring herself to care.

The murmurs in the classroom progressively grow into a fervor at the prospect of their happy, married futures being divined. Even Edelgard isn't immune, looking uncharacteristically bashful as she fidgets with her hair.

"How about me, Professor?" Edelgard asks gently. "Surely, I must have found a marriage, whether for love or for politics?"

"Your Majesty- I mean, Lady Edelgard-" Hubert stammers, fielding the question before Byleth can. "We are not even certain your future would be exactly the same as ours. I would not wish to bias you when you could surely pick any suitor in Fodlan."

"Then what about you?" Edelgard challenges, looking into Hubert's eyes, resulting in him abruptly stiffening. He'd always been acutely aware of Her Majesty's long-held crush on Byleth - it had fizzled out in modern day once Byleth made it clear she could not reciprocate, but it still burned brightly in this time period.

He won't - _can't_ \- possibly crush her hopes, but to lie to her face...

"Or you, my teacher?" Edelgard continues, tipping her head with a coy smile. "Did you... perhaps, find someone to marry?"

Unfortunately for Hubert, Byleth has never been too aware of affections aimed in her direction - and never particularly skilled when it comes to matters of tact. So when the clamor in the classroom abruptly dies down to a whisper at Edelgard's question, she doesn't hesitate.

"I thought it was obvious," Byleth replies bluntly, grabbing Hubert's hand - him cursing all the while that she'd been convincing him to go without gloves more often - and holding it up to show off the gleaming opalesque ring on his finger. "I got married to Hubert."

Edelgard's face abruptly blanches, and the younger Hubert goes whiter still, his eyes wide as he frantically looks between her and his older counterpart for answers. He is _blushing_ , Byleth realizes - a soft red that looks utterly out of place on his cheekbones.

Suddenly, she wants very much to tease him. This younger, less experienced Hubert, who she knows has never kissed a woman at this point, who hardly even dared to think of one in that way, lest it interfere with his lady's plans.

But sadly, she doesn't get the chance - she feels the familiar tug at the back of her brain just as the classroom begins to explode into questions and shocked exclamations, the way everything blurs and goes grey, smearing into streaks of sound and light all around her.

When it stops, everything is black. A familiar void, though it does not alarm her for its emptiness. It feels - familiar, and warm, like wandering the Vestra family home at night with a candle to fetch a midnight snack.

And then she sees it. The green stairs leading up to a throne that had haunted her dreams so many years ago. Atop it, a girl she'd thought gone forever.

"Sothis," she whispers, as reverent as she is shocked.

"Surprise," she laughs, kicking her feet as she lounges on the throne. "I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

"So this was your doing," Byleth murmurs. "But how? I thought you were-"

"Gone for good? All because of one little crest stone?" Sothis shakes her finger. "You silly, silly child. You should know by now - I am always with you."

"But-" Byleth tries to argue. _But then where have you been? Why haven't I seen you? Why did you leave me alone?_

"My power isn't much, anymore. And oh, I am- mm- so very sleepy." Sothis sighs, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle a yawn. "But every now and then, yes... I believe I can play a prank or two. So did you enjoy seeing your little pupils again?"

Byleth falls silent. She thinks about it for a moment, remembering their faces, the familiar smell of worn books in the classroom - and then smiles a warm, happy smile.

"Yes, I did. Thank you, Sothis."

Sothis's eyebrows lift, apparently unaccustomed to such honest displays of emotion from Byleth, or sincere gratitude. She folds her arms across her chest, a bit huffy suddenly. "W-well! Good! I'm glad to hear it! And don't worry - they won't remember a thing."

Suddenly, Byleth frowns. "But what of Hubert?"

"Oh, he'll remember." Sothis sighs. "And your students were right to be surprised, you know. Even _I'm_ surprised. I mean, Hubert? _Really?_ "

Byleth lifts her arms in an exaggerated shrug, as if that might explain literally anything.

"Well, fine." Sothis snaps her fingers, and Byleth's vision starts to melt together in a sea of color. "Not my fault if you have questionable taste in men!"

"Sothis! Wait!" Byleth shouts, as a ringing grows louder in her ears. "When will we meet again?"

"You fool! Weren't you listening to a thing I said?" Only one thing pierces the swirl of greying streaks, the ringing growing ever louder - Sothis's face, shouting at her indignantly. "We're always together!"

Everything goes black.

"Byleth?"

Byleth squeezes her eyelids together tighter, then slowly blinks them open, wincing at the light. Hubert's familiar presence looms over her, his hand on her shoulder, apparently to shake her awake.

"Hubert?" She groans, opening her eyes wider to look around. They're in the same classroom - except it's dusty and worn, some of the tapestries ripped, a table turned over, a chair missing.

 _Back to normal,_ she thinks, with an odd twinge of sadness.

"Please tell me," he whispers, looking uncharacteristically out of sorts, "that I was not the only one who had that strange dream."

"You weren't," Byleth reassures him, "and it wasn't a dream. I just got a visit from Sothis."

"Sothis," Hubert echoes, disbelief heavy in his voice, tempered only with his love for his wife.

"Her idea of a prank," Byleth sighs. "That was real. They won't remember anything, though. It's just us."

"That's certainly a relief," Hubert grumbles, moving to sit on the floor beside her where she'd slumped against a desk before apparently falling unconscious. "I... will admit, it was an interesting venture, though not one I would desire to repeat."

"It was nice to see everyone happy again," Byleth suggests, letting her head rest against his shoulder.

"And we will see them happy once more," Hubert replies, always the pragmatic one, "in the future we've worked so hard for."

She can agree with that, and so falls silent, breathing in and out, grounding herself to this reality. They are here, now - not in an unchangeable past, but in a future of their own making.

And Hubert relaxes beside her. His hand, she realizes, is resting on hers. She turns it, to hold it, to feel its cold skin against her own, running her thumb over the violet scar tissue of extended dark magic usage, playing with his wedding ring.

But then that hand suddenly jerks away, as if made acutely aware of that ring's presence on his finger.

"Byleth," he abruptly blurts out, then hesitates. "Why- did you marry me? You could have had - almost anyone."

 _The emperor herself,_ implied but not spoken.

She thinks back to the classroom and frowns, remembering the alarmed stares and murmurs of disbelief. Yes - of course that had to have felt terrible for Hubert, to be considered an undesirable, shocking option. Their engagement had been far better received, as their comrades had witnessed their closeness during the war, and it had been a rather unsurprising union as a result.

She'd been told that a few times before, that she could have had anyone in their army and then some. But did it matter, truly? Do the other options, and others' estimation of their relative worth, even matter if there's only one she's ever wanted to choose?

"Because I love you," she replies calmly, enjoying the way he reels back slightly, blushing. Her thoughts return to the younger Hubert, the stunned flush on his cheeks - and wonders if they aren't so different, really. "You're intelligent, you're funny, and kind, and handsome."

Hubert's face screws up slightly. "I would challenge you to find even one person who would agree that I have more than one of those qualities, let alone all of them."

"I don't care what they think," Byleth mumbles, turning to clamber awkwardly into his lap, slinging her arms around his neck. "I care about what I think."

"Yes," Hubert murmurs in return, something like amusement and gratitude quirking his lips. "I will defer to your judgment on the matter."

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed this work, it means a lot!


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